Sympathetic silence
Noted: For serious business journalists, entrepreneurs who shy away from the public eye should be a challenge. After all, there are already more than enough feature stories about CEOs and rhetorical PR hype.
Column For serious business journalists, publicity-shy entrepreneurs should be a challenge. After all, there are already more than enough home stories about CEOs and rhetorical PR pathos, and the worst sin in the media society is the refusal to participate in the incessant noise-making in the press and PR marketplace. Above all, entrepreneurs who refuse to be pried into by journalists quickly come under suspicion of being up to no good. Those who remain silent have something to hide, is the basic conviction of media investigators, who in such cases quickly set about filling this void with all sorts of conjectures. The "Netzwerk Recherche", a journalists' club that feels particularly committed to shedding light on the dark zones in public life, even awards a prize to the "Infoblocker of the Year": the "closed oyster" is a reproach turned to stone for politicians and entrepreneurs who do not want to make a fuss about their actions.
In 2001, the unfortunate thing fell on the feet of German Interior Minister Otto Schily; this year it hit the Albrecht brothers, who have made the food discounter Aldi flourish. They don't publish annual reports, they hardly ever give interviews, they generally don't answer journalists' questions, and - good God - they don't even have a press department. No wonder they didn't come to Hamburg in April to receive their oyster from the hands of the "Netzwerk Recherche" laudator.
I confess that I liked this refusal, although of course I take the close observation of commercial enterprises for granted. After all, about such Aldi activities, which
Journalists can inform themselves about issues that are of public interest, even if this can sometimes be tedious. The product quality, which is once again being called into question, can be checked by independent institutes; the corporate strategy should be no secret to industry insiders; there are state control bodies to prevent the improper exploitation of market power, the results of which are publicly available; and the best way to find out how employees are treated is to talk to them. There is also currently no scandal with an unclear background in and around the company. So what do you really want to know from the two old men?
It is the silence itself,
that provokes. Companies and entrepreneurs who do not take part in the great channel noise are troublemakers in the media world.
society. The Bertelsmann model has long been considered the norm: pompous rhetoric about social responsibility, visionary chatter about the company of the future and informing the public about the office design and the CEO's favorite sport. It is the transformation of business information into home stories to which the media so loudly assert their right. Almost nothing significant ever comes of it. In a recent portrait of Edda Fels, the spokeswoman for the Axel Springer publishing house, you could read about how much this lady is appreciated by journalists, even though she only disseminates zero information. No reporter knows any more afterwards, but it was nice to be able to talk to her.
So instead of scolding the Albrecht brothers, jour-
nalists should think about what is really worth knowing about these entrepreneurs. They may then realize that their curiosity certainly cannot be satisfied in interviews or via press offices and PR departments. Only those who are too comfortable to take Aldi's silence seriously as a challenge
will have fun with the kind of antics that the "Netzwerk Recherche" obviously considers necessary.
Heribert Seifert is the media and culture correspondent for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung in Germany.
In 2001, the unfortunate thing fell on the feet of German Interior Minister Otto Schily; this year it hit the Albrecht brothers, who have made the food discounter Aldi flourish. They don't publish annual reports, they hardly ever give interviews, they generally don't answer journalists' questions, and - good God - they don't even have a press department. No wonder they didn't come to Hamburg in April to receive their oyster from the hands of the "Netzwerk Recherche" laudator.
I confess that I liked this refusal, although of course I take the close observation of commercial enterprises for granted. After all, about such Aldi activities, which
Journalists can inform themselves about issues that are of public interest, even if this can sometimes be tedious. The product quality, which is once again being called into question, can be checked by independent institutes; the corporate strategy should be no secret to industry insiders; there are state control bodies to prevent the improper exploitation of market power, the results of which are publicly available; and the best way to find out how employees are treated is to talk to them. There is also currently no scandal with an unclear background in and around the company. So what do you really want to know from the two old men?
It is the silence itself,
that provokes. Companies and entrepreneurs who do not take part in the great channel noise are troublemakers in the media world.
society. The Bertelsmann model has long been considered the norm: pompous rhetoric about social responsibility, visionary chatter about the company of the future and informing the public about the office design and the CEO's favorite sport. It is the transformation of business information into home stories to which the media so loudly assert their right. Almost nothing significant ever comes of it. In a recent portrait of Edda Fels, the spokeswoman for the Axel Springer publishing house, you could read about how much this lady is appreciated by journalists, even though she only disseminates zero information. No reporter knows any more afterwards, but it was nice to be able to talk to her.
So instead of scolding the Albrecht brothers, jour-
nalists should think about what is really worth knowing about these entrepreneurs. They may then realize that their curiosity certainly cannot be satisfied in interviews or via press offices and PR departments. Only those who are too comfortable to take Aldi's silence seriously as a challenge
will have fun with the kind of antics that the "Netzwerk Recherche" obviously considers necessary.
Heribert Seifert is the media and culture correspondent for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung in Germany.
